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David's Corner

Alive Sound

Ron's Corner

David's Corner

When I was a kid, I couldn't decide if I wanted to be a secret agent, a writer, or a businessman when I grew up. As a teenager, I decided I wanted to become an architect, so I studied math and drafting. As I was growing up, my mother worked as a custom wiring lady for companies such as Universal Audio (later UREI) and Bushnell Electronics, who made custom API recording consoles. While in high school, on weekends and vacations, I would work part time with my mother at Bushnell Electronics. I learned how to solder, prepare wires for the wiring ladies, clean rest rooms, and run errands. Eventually, the engineers at Bushnell discovered I was a draftsman, so when I graduated high school, they offered me a fulltime job as their chief draftsman.

As I was drawing schematics for Bushnell, I would ask the engineers what it was I was drawing, and they answered my questions and recommended further reading. I was a sponge for new data. Bushnell hired a new design engineer, Deane Jensen (of Jensen Transformers), who asked me to be his technician on the weekends. For a while on my weekends, I would travel to different recording studios, helping Deane with whatever project he was working on, or doing drafting for him at his apartment. I remember working with him at The Moody Blues studio in the Malibu mountains, Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, and many other famous studios of the time.

In 1973, Bushnell Electronics was closing shop, and I was offered a job at a recording studio in Hollywood, Hollywood Sound, to finish a console addition that Bushnell had been commissioned to do. The job lasted ten years, and was at the studio mentioned in the beginning of Alive Sound's Story and Ron's Corner. After the console addition, the studio made me their technical director. I didn't think I knew what I was doing yet, so I kept devouring all the electronic knowledge I could get my hands on. I took correspondence courses in “Advanced Mathematics for Engineering”, “Electronics Engineering” and “Engineering Management.”

The 70s was a boom decade for recording studios. Hollywood Sound's business blossomed. The studios were booked almost 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. We had little time to do repairs between sessions. Back then, there weren't many assistant engineers, so I ended up assisting for many of the engineers. We would have less than an hour to change studio setups from a rhythm tracking session to a 40 piece string session. As I remember it, we were always on time. There were also tense times. Occasionally, I would be called into a session having problems, with the producer, artist, and engineer in an extreme state of tension. I would have to quickly, quietly, and invisibly solve their problem, so there was no “down time.”

As the studio's business grew, we decided we needed more than one technician. That was when I met Ron Garrett. He was recommended to me by one of the engineers I met at Bushnell Electronics. He was the son of a good friend of the engineer's. I hired Ron in 1976. Eventually, we had four fulltime technicians working at Hollywood Sound, with 24 hour, 7 days a week coverage.

As the 80s came, the recording studio business seemed to be going. I left my job at Hollywood Sound and began a computer company. We sold, serviced and programmed computers. This lasted for about 6 years, at which time I sold the company and began consulting work. I programmed computers, repaired audio equipment, and designed electronic equipment. I did this for a few years and eventually found a tech job at The Enterprise Studios and Audio Affects in 1992. This tech job grew from working for two companies in 1992 into working for seven companies, 70 hour per week, as a technician, computer programmer, and company wide manager. During this time, I hired Ron again to run the technical department at Audio Affects. When I left this job, I again went back to consulting.

In 2005, Ron Garrett asked me to help him with his new company, Alive Sound. I obliged and have been here since.

I was asked to list my top 10 favorite albums, but don't really have such a list. I will list some of my favorite artists, composers, and musical pieces, if anyone cares to see: